Make a list of those vulnerable

A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday sent a legal notice to the authorities concerned of the government requesting them to make a list of the country's financially vulnerable people and distribute food and medicines among them through the army within a week.

The move is aimed at helping the people during the crisis which has stemmed from the coronavirus outbreak.

Barrister Shihab Uddin Khan served the legal notice to the secretaries to the ministries of planning, LGRD, health, and relief and disaster management, and the director general of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, asking them to take necessary steps in this regard.

In the legal notice, Shihab alleged that mismanagement and lack of coordination are reportedly taking place in the distribution of relief materials, including food and medicines, among the low-income and other poor people. Therefore, the financially vulnerable people are being deprived of the daily essentials.

The relief materials need to be distributed smoothly in order to save the lives of the poor, and this task needs to be given to the army personnel, he said in the legal notice.

He told The Daily Star that he would move a writ petition before the High Court, seeking necessary orders if the respondents didn't respond to the notice.